Style-wonkette notes about fashion and personal style from Fort Smith, Arkansas, deep in rural America. For mature women, beldames, women of a certain age, matriarchs and fully grown-up females. Age is not nearly as important as your eye for style.

Monday, December 30, 2013

It takes a brave woman to list her most
personal New Year's Resolutions on her blog. We generally don't make
resolutions about the parts of ourselves we already like (although
that's not a bad idea, actually!) so it's our least favorite mental
private-parts we focus on. Bad habits, bad ideas, bad self-image,
bad reactions, bad memories. Bad, bad, bad. And generally highly
personal. We list all the bad things we think about ourselves and
write vows that we may or may not keep about what we'll do to improve
the situation. And frankly, for me this can result in some Serious
Bloggy TMI.

This is not the way I want to spend my
New Year's self-contemplation this time around. And you'll
undoubtedly be glad to hear that. You're welcome.

But since this is ostensibly a personal
style blog, and since I do like to consider ways to make the
coming new calendar year a better one, here's a list of items I plan
on improving in the coming months to make my blog life better and
easier and more fulfilling. And as I love a good win-win, they
should make positive change in your reading experience as well.
After all, mi cyber-casa es su cyber-casa.

So here they are, my 2014 Style
Resolutions

Facebook Page

Did you know that I have one for Fort
Smith Stylista? I constructed it but have done nothing-zero-nada to
promote it. So, I will figure out how to make a button for the page
to make it easier. In the nonce, if you'd like say hello, you can
pop over to https://www.facebook.com/fortsmithstylista . I will
figure this all out someday.

Redesign website:

I'm ready for a change in appearance.
Stay tuned.

Find a better way to keep in
touch with bloggy friends.

I have way more bloggy folks I'm really
interested in than I know how to keep up with. Lately, it's been all
I can do to get my own blog out. As in real life, I need to listen
more and talk less ... that applies to my cyber-life as well. This
will change.

Try to find some different
backgrounds for photos.

My pics are dull as dishwater, and I
want to be more creative about this. If I'm going to plaster my mug
all over the Internet, I should try to photograph it in more
interesting surroundings. So many of you inspire me! This, by the
way, is probably more just wishful thinking than a firm resolution.
We shall see.

Get a current avatar that reflects the changes. Sigh.

(And the following are more wardrobe
oriented

than about the blog ...)

Spend more time recombining
items. I just know there are lots of better partnerships in
my closet than I'm seeing or using.

Renew, recycle, and reuse!
Not a week goes by that I'm not inspired by you repurposing and
resdesigning geniuses! (Jean at Dross Into Gold and Nell at Nelesc Design , I'm talking to you, especially. )

Continue to try to find a decent
resale/consignment shop and actually use it. This is an
ongoing project. Bella (the wonderful Citizen Rosebud ) you will always be my hero and inspiration
here!

Try it on before you buy it.
Really. Take it back if necessary.

Love it or leave it.
Also ongoing. This is the most
satisfying concept I adopted this year, and I highly recommend it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Thank you all, who read my stuff and
write to me about yours. You are all my coinspirators ... and I thank
you all for the happy hours your hard blogging work has given me. I
promise to try hard be a better blog-pal this coming year!

I leave you with a shout out to a
blogger who is one of my newest and probably my most esoteric style
inspirations of 2013:

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Merry Christmas, Happy Zwanzaa, and
belated warm wishes for bothChanukah
and the Winter Solstice. Ooops ... almost forgot; a belated Fabulous
Festivus as well. We offerSeason's Greetings to one and
all.

My husband, Dan, especially loves A
Christmas Carol ... the story as published in 1843, and all the
film adaptations as well. It doesn't
matter which one. We both love Dickens' themes of transformation and
redemption. (Dan is living proof. He didn't become a cat-person
until his 60s. And if that is not some serious transformation, then
I don't know what is. The cats say that his evolution rises to the
higher feline standard of redemption. But then, they would.)

But I especially
love the concepts that surround the Winter Solstice. For me, it's
about coming from the darkest, most internal time of the year and
back into the Light. In fall, I admit to feeling a little relieved
at the end of summer, that most outgoing of all seasons. When fall arrives, it feels to me like the
natural return to a more inward-attentive season of the heart, mind
and spirit. But with the marking of the Winter Solstice, things
feel like they begin to lighten up just a bit. My optimism begins to
take over from my habitual deep-fall broodiness, and I'm glad to
celebrate lightness again, and my hope for personal enlightenment is
renewed. That hope includes my wishes for all of man and woman
kind. After the hours of dark and light become equal, the light
stays just a little longer every day and it seems time to get on with
the business of doing the activities of daily life with more
enthusiasm and hope.

Dan loves the
Winter Solstice for those same reasons, he claims. But I also
know that he waits for it so he can ask complete strangers if they have noticed how the days getting longer on December 22nd. You have to be
there. It's mildly amusing to watch their expressions of polite confusion. He thinks it's hysterical.

To all of you who
regularly read what I write, or only read occassionally, or just
happened by today ... thank you for all the gifts of beauty and friendship
and insight you've shared with me this year. Let's celebrate first what and whom we
love the most and then get ready to take another fantastic trip around the
sun. Once more with grand gusto and your own, inimitable personal
style!

Monday, December 16, 2013

I'm happy to see
that some of you want to read this great book and are happy to pass
it on. This shouldn't be too complicated a process. I'll send this
book on to the first person on the list (that would be Val Sparkle.)
When she's done with it, she can just get in contact with the next
person on the list for her mailing address (that would be Alice) and
send it off to her. Alice can do the same with Becky and so on.

That way all
private addresses stay private. I'll lose track of the list
eventually, so please let me know if you want to read the book and
I'll try to find it for you. The only thing I ask is that if
you borrow it, please send it on as long as there are people who want
to read it. (It's a paperback that we're handing off, so who knows
how long it will stay in one piece? Just tape it back together and send it on!)

And for those of you who just stopped by to see what is up this week from my teeny-tiny-little-mind , here's me in a faux leather vest, a georgette-ish tunic shirt, jeans and my very-old-but-still-good suede boots.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

I swore I was going to make this week's post a positive one as my most recent bloggy offerings have been devoted to whining and navel gazing about hair issues. You've all been patient and very kind and deserve better.Then a record breaking ice storm hit us here in MidNowhere, knocking out power to thousands here in our part of the world, and we were part of the mess. Couldn't get out to the restaurant, but then no one else could either. We woke up Friday morning to no heat or light, and ... AAAACCCKK! ... no Internet (!!!) No matter where you are, these big and inconvenient-but-survivable weather interruptions to our fairly easy lives are a massive pain in the ass. But unlike the quick devastation of our frequent tornadoes, we saw this mess coming, and were able to prepare at least a little. We've been pretty lucky so far, as our power was restored late Saturday evening. Wine was opened in celebration and layers shed as the heat came back on. As of Sunday afternoon there were still 10,000 out of power on the third day in, and as of Monday, there had been over 60,000 in Arkansas affected, and I'm pretty sure they're not done counting.Peter Benenson, the founder of Amnesty International famously advised the world that we'd all "better light a candle than curse the darkness." He was referencing other circumstances; a world much more horrific than ours, but the advice is well taken and practical. At our house, there certainly was some cursing, but candles were lit and we got by.The Positive Part ...Even without Internet access, I had some hours of completely absorbing entertainment because the friendship and generosity of two bloggers who live approximately 4,404 miles away from me.Some weeks ago, the fabulous Curtise of her lovely blog, The Secondhand Years , sent me a much appreciated care-package that included a book she though I would enjoy: Linda Grant's The Thoughtful Dresser. She was so right! Curtise had been given it by the equally fabulous Vix, who brings us her luxuriant and lively blog, The Vintage Vixen . Not sure where she got it, but my thanks go out to both of these generous women for passing this book around and sharing the wisdom! Because I knew instantly that I would love it, I had been saving it for a time when I needed some serious fun. No time like a power outage to guiltlessly indulge in some serious goofing-off, so I grabbed the book, wrapped up in a big blanket (closely accompanied by the shorter haired dogs and cats) and camped near a big window. I read into the night with the help of my "Itty Bitty Book Light" until I'd finished it. I closed it reluctantly about midnight, and I'm sorry it's done. As soon as I'm in funds again, I'll be haunting Amazon, looking for more of her books. Thank you so much again, Curtise ... bet you didn't know you were doing such a grand and comforting thing when you posted this book off to me!Ms. Grant is one of those women that you just know you'd love to death if you knew her in real life. She's only a year younger than I am, and although she grew up in England, lots of her experiences are like mine and will be appreciated by our whole generation. Younger readers will get it, too, because we all wear clothes, and the love of them is pan-generational. She takes on the subject that so many of us dabble around the edges of; why we care about what we wear. Then, she treats our favorite guilty pleasure with a refreshing respect that is completely without apology. She often elevates the discussion to the near-poetic. As in a lot of wonderful nonfiction, the bibliography alone is a tiny treasure, a road sign pointing to other sources of reading pleasure!The fundamental act of dressing is her subject, too. Not a how-to or book of style suggestions, The Thoughtful Dresser is a sometimes funny and occasionally heartbreaking group of connected essays and stories about what has often been regarded as a purely a feminine pastime and our weakness . She reminds us that our love of the pleasures of dressing is, besides being one of our most effective tool of seduction, an effective and time-honored tool used to gain and maintain sovereignty over our own lives. She writes with the incisive insight of personal experience and passion about our lust for handbags and shoes, and why they are aspirational objects of desire and pleasure instead of just functional items that keep our feet dry and our stuff organized.What style or fashion blogger doesn't want to know more about the pleasures we take in our dressing rituals and why they are so important in our lives? Because I interrupted Dan's own reading so often during that snowy day, insistent that he hear a particular bon mot or concept I thought his sociological heart might like, even he wants to read The Thoughtful Dresser now. It's that good, 'cause he's a picky and serious reader.A Possible Bloggy-Friend Project:Because this book seems destined to be passed on, if anyone wants it I'll be happy to send it on. What I'd like to do is keep it going. What if we all swear a pinky-oath to send it on and keep it moving?Let me know via Comments if you're interested, please.

Thoughtfully dressed to go into the Big City, pre-storm, to stock up on some

provisions for the correctly predicted nasty weather ...

This is an old, very warm faux fur-lined (and washable!) coat by Tribal that I wore with my also growing-elderly Ralph Lauren lug-soled boots and my Phillip Lim for Target shirt.

Monday, December 2, 2013

I had no idea that a simple haircut
would be such a big emotional deal to me.

I've recently written about being a bit
down in the dumps about my appearance, and a few weeks earlier, I
wrote about burning big chunks of my hair off in an accident with a
candle, and consequently getting it cut into a chin-length bob. It
took me until the day before Thanksgiving last week to put the two
events together.

Duh. I just had to finally admit that
I hated having to cut my hair when I wasn't ready to do it, and
hated how the resulting style looked on me.

I look like a garden gnome in all my
pictures since "The Bob."

I've had hairstyle-fails before, but
they didn't send me into a funk.

Next, I indulged in a good, thoroughly
cathartic fit of weeping. Then I went to my old salon in the Big
City, clutching a photo of a style I liked better and begged a
stylist to fit me in without an appointment. She cut another 1.5
inches off, add some texture-y layers and show me how to flip them
around a bit to break up what looks like an old fashioned "page-boy"
to me. I am still learning some new hair styling skills, it's
still bob-ish (in fact, another version) but not as rigid looking and
I am happier.

But the big surprise in all this is how
much I didn't like my original cut, and how low I felt about it. It
was a good, competent haircut, but really
not how I want to look. Lots of the women whose looks
I admire most wear bobbed locks with panache, great flair and look
completely beautiful in this very popular style. I envy all of you.
I've appreciated and tried to internalize all the compliments and
support I've gotten from so many of my bloggy friends in the comments
section. But on me, I think it looks uptight (wow... how long has
it been since you heard anyone use that word?) and more than a little
constipated and stuffy. And I think I look just a little mean. I
take notions about things, like leopard print and denim jackets and
camouflage prints. Apparently, that applies to some hairstyles as
well.

I'm still not happy about my hair, and
I don't want to grow it long again, but I see a spark of potential.
And I'm feeling better now that I've given up trying to force myself
into liking it. Perhaps it's just me in my maturity, but life is
seeming way too short to spend any more time at all trying to accept
a haircut I don't like.

So I won't.

Here I am, still stuck in dressed-down,
post-holiday, errand running mode, with the new cut. It was so cold
out that Dan was shaky and the picture wasn't very sharp. I adjusted
the color ... blouse is close, as are the oxblood jacket and cordovan
booties. My hair came out much brighter than it really is, though, but you
get an idea of the cut.

I was wearing lipstick that was almost
burgundy ... go figure.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I'll be showing up "late but
present" at the always sweet-and-kind-looking Patti's Visible Monday

Monday, November 25, 2013

For those of you outside the US, this
Thursday we'll be celebrating our Thanksgiving. Here, the day is
marked by excess: we Americans almost always set out to deliberately
over-indulge in our favorite seasonal foods and beverages with
family. We may not like our relatives, or particularly care for
turkey, but celebrate together we do. The feast itself is usually
scheduled for early afternoon. That's to allow for the traditional
nap that follows and/or our other national tradition-obsession; hours
and hours and hours of college or pro football. And that is usually
accompanied by grazing on leftovers, and extra servings of dessert.

But at its best and in its deeper
meaning, it's a national day of gratitude. We're supposed to spend
at least a portion of the day counting our personal and collective
blessings. I am first grateful for my Darling Dan and the rest of
our very small and peculiar family. That absolutely includes all our
four- legged and furry or big, hairy, hoofed "children" as
well as our wild and domestic winged babies. I celebrate the health
of all the above, and the health and happiness of our immediate and
extended two-legged family and friends.

It's just the two of us here, so I'm
grateful that Dan doesn't want the whole traditional demonstration of
excess for dinner on the big day. We just make lots of only our very
favorites dishes and enjoy them with a good bottle (or two) of better
wine than we usually drink, and a bottle of cheap champagne to finish
the evening. (We find the bubbles nice on a full tummy.) I'm also
grateful that he doesn't watch football ... and that brings me to
another thing I'm especially grateful for. Satellite television

allows us to save marathons of favorite series we've missed on the
DVR, or movies.

I have a whole list of important and
serious things to be grateful for but, as you see, I'm also grateful
for many of the less high-minded elements and fun parts of my life.
And since this is (ostensibly) a style blog, I have some gratitude to
express about the style and sartorial life as well.

To start, I'm grateful that Dan and I
just dress up our best jammies or jammie-equivalents on Turkey Day,
and call it good. It's all about the food anyway at our house. I
might or might not wear mascara, but will absolutely brush my hair.
I'll lounge and help cook in cozy black leggings and a new, black and
pink lace print sweatshirt in ... ahem ... "French terry"
that sports a different, silkier front panel.

Speaking of Target* ... I'm grateful
that we finally got one in our Big City. I have fun at our Target.
And because of their designer collaborations, it's one of the few
places where I can have at least some of the same kind of fun as
women in more urban areas have.

Another Target thing I am grateful for
this year is Sonia Kashuck's new line of fragrances with companion
creams and other body-care yummies. There are four different scents
in the line but I'm enchanted with her Pink Innocencia. I'm a
little bit of a fragrance snob. I have standards -- they're low, but
I do have them -- and I generally try to step it up a bit from Big
Box perfumes with celebrity names. However, Kashuck has some serious
design and quality chops, and this tuberose, magnolia and amber
fragrance is right up my alley.

It comes on pretty intensely right
out of the bottle, but settles down quickly and just glows softly all
afternoon. Great for layering too, with hand and body creams, all
inexpensively available. Lovely for everyday, especially when I'm
here all by myself all day with the dogs, cats and horses. They
don't care much if I smell good, but I do.

As much as I love Target, I won't be
anywhere near it on Black Friday. Which starts as early as Thursday
evening, right after dinners. It has become the most insane shopping
day here in the US, and I'm grateful that I'm avoiding
this part of the holiday madness. I like a good sale as much as the
next woman, but I'm too little and too old to compete with younger,
or larger, or more determined (or sometimes just meaner) women for
deep sale prices and parking spaces.

I'm grateful that this was the year
that I managed to get all my favorite magazines, including the
fashion glossies, in digital subscriptions on my Kindle Fire. I love
it. I can now carry ALL of them around with me along with my book
collection, sketch pad, music, web browser and a movie or two if I wish.

And I'm grateful for happy style
accidents that sometimes happen. While wandering around JCP (yes,
again ....) I found a brown and black striped boat-neck sweater that
I just love. On sale. And I'm grateful how well it goes with a brown
and black stripped skirt that I've had for a long time. It has
looked okay with other tops, but I think it's now part of an
"outfit" with the two happy pieces together.

And I'm grateful that our recent warm
day has turned to much cooler weather, so I could bring out the
tights and boots and leather and enjoy wearing it

Finally, I return to my list of
important blessings. If you're reading this, I'm thankful for you!
And if you leave a reply, I'm extra thankful. And if you are one of
the great but unsung style-bloggers from all around the world that I
count among my bloggy-friends, bloggers who inspire me daily, weekly
and always, and who share with me your pretty clothes, interesting
lives and smart opinions .... I'm grateful for every one of your
posts this past year. You help bring the world to my door, you
challenge my preconceptions, make me think, let me learn, and keep me
from being as isolated as I might otherwise be. I'm thankful for all
of that and every one of you.

So, where ever you are, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

*This is not a sponsored post by
Target. Or JCP. Or anyone. I'm just a fan.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Yesterday, the local temperature was
81ºF
(about 27 ºC ) and the low was supposed to be about 38 ºF ( just over 3
ºC )!

Not sure about the low because I wasn't awake to
verify it in the wee hours of this morning. It had been down in the
50s for the daylight hours last week, but it's still warm and into
the mid-60s today.

Not
to put too fine a point on it, but WTF? I'm completely
discombobulated with this weather. Will someone please remind Mother
Nature that it's freaking November?

Cancel
that ... no doubt I'll have cause to regret my complaints come
January or February. But for now, it's difficult to plan how to
dress ahead of time. The post outfits I had planned for today were
way too cozy and bundled up to wear comfortably, so I opted to punt.

I
decided to do more digging in my closet for items I love but don't
wear often, and was rewarded with a happy surprise or two that look
winter-ish but are cool enough to be comfy in this strange
spring-like weather.

This
little skirt has been in my closet forever and survived several
purges because I just couldn't give up on it. I've just never found
any items that worked well with it.

It's very pretty but it's always
seemed an odd length that suddenlyseems much more workable with the
current revival of the midi skirt. Midis are problematic for me, but
I just love the length of this sweet little skirt. The silvery
embroidered and scalloped hem is enough excuse to keep it!

This
top was a surprise for me because I found it very recently on the
sale rack at Target after they gave up on the recent Phillip Lim
collaboration. I think the original $39.99 price tag understandably seemed high to many of our local Target shoppers. I
was tickled to find it on sale, though, and I like the fit a lot.
Its jeweled collar has seemed a little wintery until now, and will
look great under a blazer or moto later on, but I thought it gave the
little skirt a nice excuse to dress up and go out. I didn't actually
wear the skirt on our trip to the Big City yesterday, but I'll wear
it to work soon. The restaurant is always warm enough to go
sleeveless!

The
top did get to go to town, 'cause I pared it with coated skinnies, best
booties and a little tougher silver watch and chain-link bracelet
than I'd usually choose for it. That worked pretty well I thought,
and I had fun wearing it.

But
I'm especially happy that this nice little skirt has finally found
her match!

Monday, November 11, 2013

It may just be a hangover from our
recent Halloween festivities, but I've been feeling more than a
little grim this week about how I look. Especially in photos. Although the numbers on the scale remain constant, I feel fat.

And
ancient.

I hate my hair and my face.

I even hate my first name.

We
all have days, weeks or just moments like this, and the grimness is transitory (we hope),
and often followed by a better, more optimistic week.

As I mused in a comment to someone on
one of the blogs, somewhere, it's only been recently that I've realized that many of the favorite clothes that live in my closet
today will still be there the day after I'm dead. Ick!

Barring
being run over by a very big truck, or being struck by lightning, or
succumbing to a quick and deadly failure of a critical organ, I'm not likely to croak very soon. I'm in pretty good health so
far as I know, so I'll probably live for a quite a while yet, but none of us come
out of this alive. I don't mean to be a complete downer here, but
it's a fact. (Except for Dan, according to him. He intends to live
forever, and I devoutly wish him success with this project.)

Assuming I predecease Mr. Immortal, he'll have to clean out the
closets at some point. Knowing his attention to all issues of
sustainability, he'll recycle it out into the world, somehow.

So, at a certain age, I think we all have
to honestly assess just what the hell we're saving all the good stuff
for!

All of you vintage collectors have to
be aware of the wonder of the vibe that's sometime left behind by past
owners of your new-to-you garments; mysterious and full of an intriguing and contradictory sense of potential. Selfish cow that I
am, I don't want to risk feeling like I missed a lot of
the potential fun my favorite garments suggest to me while I
actually own them. I want to have worn out and be completely finished with my best stuff when I move on to any other plane of existence.

So, I am making a concentrated effort
to pull out and wear my favorite things much more often. Not just
the costlier closet inhabitants, and my mother's good jewelry, but
the fun stuff ... like the recently excavated $9.00 tutu, or costume
jewelry that I bought just because of how much fun it looked to be at
the time.

I have recently unearthed two chambray
shirts that I really like so much that I've taken the time to properly shorten
for better proportion. But, as many of you know, I'm slow to to adopt new style
ideas without first completely over-thinking them. I've been fussing
around with ways to wear them where I don't look like a farm hand or
an elderly teenager. In the spirit of living-it-up just a little, I've
combined them here with some unrepentantly fake sparklies. I love
the way this looks on young women, and don't much care if it looks
jejune on me. I really needed to have some fun with casual wear this
week, and piled on the trends ( ... 'scuse me. Style ideas.)

Blue chambray, my favorite deep red skinnies, my sparkly gold pumps that I don't get to wear nearly as often as I like, and bronze chains,

So, I'm feeling better about everything. I have two, new go-to outfits for days that bring even a tiny case of the blues.

The other thing I figured out is that if I only add things to my wardrobe that I completely adore, and keep on doing it, I might live a very, very long time, and gorgeously ... I'll need the time for all the fun I intend to have playing in my closet!

and at The Sleek and Chic Seeker'sTres Chic Style Bits #3(Hope she lets me ... we don't know each other yet!)Late Breaking Update 11/18/2013: I'm joining Patti at her fabulous Visible Monday ! Come over and see what we're all up to!~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Have a great week, all! Thanks for reading, and feel free to let me know what you think about what I wrote, or anything you want me to hear!

Monday, November 4, 2013

I love the Baroque period in art,
music, architecture and philosophy. It's a period of elaborateness
of design only surpassed by the era that followed, the completely
over-the-top Rococo period. Next to the Rococo, it's positively
restrained.

The Ecstasy of St. Theresa

Bernini

The Calling of St. Matthew

Caravaggio

According to the OED, the era's name
derives from similar words in Portuguese, Spanish and French for a
"rough or imperfect pearl." What a lovely idea.

Baroque pearls!

To our contemporary eye, a little
Baroque goes a long way. Although, clearly there have been some fans
in the design world who are making more than a little of it. This
fall especially, and in contrast to some pretty stark minimalism and
a sea of highly tailored and simple silhouettes, we're seeing
unabashed references to the Baroque all over the place, in
jewelry and embroidered fabrics and laces ... but very little of it
is casual. Or even close to affordable for the likes of me.

More D & G, but with puttiprints.

Leave it to good old JCP to once again
surprise me, and provide me just the right amount of what I want. I
just found this very sheer Baroque print with a faux leather panel by
Bisou Bisou.

It's just a sleeveless tunic-top,
which I'm looking forward to wearing with a skimpy black camisole
underneath and an "after 5:00-ish" jacket on top. But of
course I want to wear it NOW, so I'm layering it with a light weight
tee for this suddenly cooler weather we're having and more casual
occasions. I also like the contrast of faux leather trousers,
and added the suede heels with tassels for yet another texture.

Just a little Baroque for little old
me. I'm such a sucker for a bit of historical romance!

Monday, October 28, 2013

As you all know, plumbing problems are
the biggest pain in the tuchas. They're not only intimidating,
destructive, sometimes difficult and often expensive to repair, but they
can make you feel defeated and deprived. In this case, it was a dying
pressure relief valve on our water heater, and the failure of this
single piece of plumbing hardware took away our hot water, making it
really hard to maintain basic hygiene ( yak!) It also deprived me of
long, luxurious soaks in my tub, and made it impossible to
color my hair.

(This is a new pressure relief valve. It is not as innocent as it looks.)

The fix for this snafu was simple in
theory: turn off the water, disconnect and unscrew this little item,
screw another one in, reconnect it, then turn the water back on and
you're back in business. The problem is that the little bastards have a tendency to
seize up and won't budge. This one was just such a stubborn little bastard.
Much heaving and hammering, huffing and straining ensued. Without boring you with all the details, it took us several days (!!)
to get it unstuck and get our hot water back. And when we did, we
were seriously proud of our accomplishment. (Dan was the one to
actually make it move, but I take credit for taking many futile turns at
yarding on the pipe wrench, and the eventual application of the
penetrating oil that finally dissolved the mineral deposits that made it
stick. )

Reasonably, you ask, "What has
this to do with personal style?" The answer is this: the
triumph one feels over a big plumbing problem solved is a huge confidence builder. That burst of self-assurance combined with the
giddy, celebratory relief of having your hot water back is so heady
that you can suddenly feel confident enough to wear whatever you damn well want to.

My little black tulle skirt has been
hanging in my closet for months, and I've never worn it for fear of
looking like a modern Miss Havisham. So full of self-esteem was I
that it suddenly seemed just the thing to do. A woman who can help fix her
own plumbing and manage excellent hygiene for days without hot water
from the tap should be able to wear a tulle skirt with aplomb.

I
swear that when I opened the closet, I heard that little wisp of a
skirt whisper "Now... now is the time ..." in that
swishy, scratchy, soft voice that tulle would have if it possessed
the ability to speak. I also pulled out the black nylons with
the tiny polka dots, just for this special occasion. Woo hoo! I
thought my new, black, moto-ish jacket helped push this combination
right over the edge.

I wore the whole outfit to the restaurant on
Saturday evening and had the best time! I'm unlikely to wear it
often, but it felt good to try it at least once. And not one person
thought it was a Halloween costume. Or said so, anyway.

Here's Dan feeling too cool to be seen
without shades. He's not only happy to have the job accomplished,
he's relieved that I'm no longer freaking out. He's also wearing
one of his Phillip Lim for Target shirts that he found on the
clearance rack. He had a good week several ways.

~*~*~*~*~*~

So ... thanks for reading, have a great week and remember:

Wherever the confidence or inspiration comes from, whether it's from the pages of Vogue or Plumbing for Dummies, it can feel wonderful to grab it and run with it!

~*~*~*~*~*~

Late Breaking News! At last, I'm in time to link up with the Fabulously Talented and Intriguingly Interesting Spy Girl, Anneand her 52 Pick-Me-Up linky party! I'm going to visit with the most interesting women ... join me!

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"Women always try to tame themselves as they get older, but the ones who look best are often a bit wilder. Thinking about age all the time is the biggest prison women can make for themselves." - Miuccia Prada